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Four years after U.S. forces assassinated Osama bin Laden, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh has published an explosive piece claiming much of what the Obama administration said about the attack was wrong. Hersh claims at the time of the U.S. raid, bin Laden had been held as a prisoner by Pakistani intelligence since 2006. Top Pakistani military leaders knew about the operation and provided key assistance. Contrary to U.S. claims that it located bin Laden by tracking his courier, a former Pakistani intelligence officer identified bin Laden’s whereabouts in return for the bulk of a $25 million U.S. bounty. Questions are also raised about whether bin Laden was actually buried at sea, as the U.S. claimed. Hersh says instead the Navy SEALs threw parts of bin Laden’s body into the Hindu Kush mountains from their helicopter. The White House claims the piece is "riddled with inaccuracies." Hersh joins us to lay out his findings and respond to criticism from government officials and media colleagues.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Four years ago this month, President Obama announced U.S. forces had killed Osama bin Laden in a raid on his hideout in Pakistan.
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: At my direction, the United States has launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama Bin Laden and took custody of his body.
AARON MATÉ: But now a new investigation says the official story is a lie. In an explosive report the veteran journalist Seymour Hersh alleges a vast deception on everything from how bin Laden was found to how he was killed. According to Hersh, Pakistan detained bin Laden in 2006 and kept him prisoner with the backing of Saudi Arabia. In 2010 a Pakistani intelligence officer disclosed bin Laden’s location to the CIA. Hersh says the U.S. and Pakistan then struck a deal; the U.S. would raid bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad but make it look as if Pakistan was unaware. In fact, Hersh says top Pakistani military leaders provided key help.
AMY GOODMAN: The report also challenges the initial U.S. account of how bin Laden was killed. Hersh says there was never a firefight inside the compound and that bin Laden himself was not armed. Questions are also raised about whether bin Laden was actually buried at sea as the U.S. claimed. Hersh says, instead the Navy SEALs threw parts of bin Laden’s body into the Hindu Kush mountains from their helicopter. The White House has rejected Hersh’s account of the bin Laden raid. Press Secretary Josh Earnest spoke to reporters on Monday.
JOSH EARNEST: I can tell you that the Obama White House is not the only one to observe that the story is riddled with inaccuracies and outright falsehoods. The former deputy director of the CIA, Mike Morell has said that every sentence was wrong. And Jim, I actually thought one of your colleagues at CNN put it best, Peter Bergen, a security analyst for CNN, described the story as being about 10,000 words in length, and he said, based on reading it, that what is true in the story isn’t new and what’s new in the story isn’t true. So I thought that was a pretty good way of describing why no one here is particularly concerned about it.
AMY GOODMAN: In a statement, White House National Security spokesperson Ned Price said, "There are too many inaccuracies and baseless assertions in this piece to fact check each one... the notion that the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden was anything but a unilateral U.S. mission is patently false," he said. But despite the White House denials, none of its statements have addressed Hersh’s specific allegations. Meanwhile other reporting is beginning to corroborate some key elements. According to NBC News, three intelligence sources have backed Hersh’s claim that the U.S. heard about bin Laden’s location when a Pakistani officer told the CIA. The U.S. has said it helped find bin Laden by tracking his personal courier which Hersh says is a ruse. The NBC sources also backed Hersh’s contention that the Pakistani government knew all along where bin Laden was hiding. Well, for more we go directly to Seymour Hersh, whose 10,000 word article, "The Killing of Osama bin Laden," appears online at the London Review of Books. It’s Hersh’s latest major investigation in a body of work spanning decades. He won the Pulitzer Prize for exposing the 1968 My Lai Massacre in Vietnam when U.S. forces killed hundreds of civilians. In 2004, Seymour Hersh broke the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Seymour Hersh, welcome to Democracy Now! Why don’t you, in your own words, describe what it is that you found?
SEYMOUR HERSH: Well, you guys did a pretty good job. Basically, you covered the tracks. Basically, I think you can say, simply, that the President, as he said on television, when he announced the raid, did order the raid and the SEAL Team Six, the most elite unit we have in our special forces group, they did conduct a mission. They did kill bin Laden. They did take the body. That’s all true, and the rest of it is sort of hooey.
AARON MATÉ: Can we talk about what seems to be the most shocking claim. Pakistan finding in 2006 and the U.S. not finding out until 2010 when you allege a Pakistani officer told the U.S., and meanwhile, Saudi Arabia backing and paying for bin Laden’s imprisonment. This seems very improbable, involving hundreds, thousands of officials in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and then the U.S.
SEYMOUR HERSH: Where do you get the notion of hundred or thousand officials? It’s, it’s — we’re talking about a closed society. The White House has a lot of control over the information. The senior Pakistani officials have control over the information. We are talking about a country that went, a dozen, ten years ago through a WMD sort of cover up. The notion that there is some major conspiracy I’m alleging is just sort of — that’s over the top. There’s no major conspiracy here. It’s very easy to control news. We all saw that when the whole thing about the Saddam Hussein and the alleged nuclear weapons. I should think that would be a model for why you might just not be so skeptical of the possibility of holding things. And let me also say, in the piece, it’s not so much that I’m saying what happened. I’m quoting sources and of course they’re unnamed. You just announced what happened to Jeffrey Sterling today. I mean, what reporter would want to name a source in this administration. You know, bam! He’d be gone. So there you are.
What simply happened is at a certain critical point we had to walk in, we were very angry about it, the United States, Pakistan is our ally. And underneath all of this you have to understand something, which I’m sure you do; just to tell the audience, Pakistan has, what, one, two hundred, maybe more, they’re still making — producing enriched uranium, etc., etc. And they have a great deal of nuclear weapons. I would guess they’re up to 200 now. It was 100 half a decade ago. And so we have to have comity between the ranking American generals and the ranking Pakistani generals. This is something very important to us. The Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI helps train the people who guard the weapons. We work with Pakistan, and very closely to watch out — literally with them — to monitor the people who are in control of the weapons that make sure nobody is a secret nationalist or a secret jihadist who might grab weapon and do something crazy with it. That’s a serious — big issue that’s sort of an under — that’s behind the whole relationship. We give Pakistan a lot of money through Congress over the table and we give a lot of money to the leadership under the table. So we have a great deal of — and we also understand Pakistan has it’s own agenda.
And so, '06, they did grab bin Laden. 2010 we learn about it. We're angry. We don’t tell the Paks we know right away. We begin looking at Abbottabad where he’s located. We start observing him. This has been reported. We set up a team in a nearby house; mostly foreign nationals and Pakistanis who work with us to monitor the house. We go to the President — the community — intelligence community goes to the President with the information about the walk in. Any guy that wants to sell information for money is automatically suspect, so you have to be careful. The President is appropriately very cautious, very cautious. He’s not going to make a move. He doesn’t want to end up like Jimmy Carter in a desert, you know, in 1980, you know, that failed attempt to rescue the American hostages which hurt him politically, terribly. It’s a year before an election. He’s not very popular in America. Not much is going right. He’s in a constant fight with Congress, etc., etc., etc.
So we determine the only way we can be sure that we’ve got the right guy, and this will work, is we have to go to the Pakistanis. So we go to the leadership; General Kayani, who’s the head of the army, and General Pasha who’s the head of the internal — what they call the ISI, Interservices Intelligence Unit; their counterpart to the CIA. We go to those people. We lay out our case. We make it clear that a lot of goodies are going to be cut off. There’s F-16s that are in the pipeline. We’re going to slow it down. We’re going to slow down congressional money, etc., etc. They have very little option. OK, they start working with us. We set up a four man team in a place called Tarbela Ghazi. These are all details — this is a 10,000 word article. I mean this is a lot of information in this article. We set up a team — none of which the White House is responding to and senators say — they keep on saying, it’s so many falsehoods we can’t correct it. And by the way, the last time I — quoting Peter Bergen — I don’t know the guy, I’m sure he believes what he believes, but the last time the White House actually quoted a reporter in the way they did would have been Dick Cheney quoting a story by Judy Miller and Mike Gordon in The New York Times at the height of the WMD crisis about the tubes that allegedly could be used for making — delivering nuclear weapons. A story that they had planted in the New York Times and then Cheney and 60 Minutes goes and uses that story as a — to buttress the argument. We know that. That seems to me to really — just get on with it White House. Just start denying specifics.
Four man team in Ghazi, Ghazi Tarbela, a very important base in Pakistan. A lot of black operations are run with us and the Pakistanis out of it. It’s not that well known. There’s an airbase there, but there’s also a covert unit. The Pakistanis also train most of the guards who monitor and watch over the nuclear weapons there. So it’s a — we’re there. We’re getting — our team is collecting data on the place in Abbottabad where bin Laden — you can call him a prisoner under the supervision that there were steel doors leading to his apartment that were locked. He was on the third floor of this complex there. There were a number of buildings in the compound. And we have great detail. We’re learning how thick the steel is, how much dynamite you need to blow it, how many steps are going, who else is there. This is all being passed by the Pakistanis to us.
The whole game and the whole crux of the story I’m writing is that nothing was supposed to be made public after the raid. The SEALs were supposed to go in — and you have to understand we’re talking about two Black Hawks full of SEALs, packed to the brim. The SEALs are basically better off with 8-10 people, and they had 12 in each of them. They were — the plane was stripped down. They were coming in heavy. And 24 SEALs going into a compound where, presumably, if it was the secret raid there would be somebody with arms. Certainly, if Pakistan itself wasn’t guarding it with armed people, bin Laden would have armed guards because a man that a lot of people would want to get to. They’re going in just repelling down was the plan. You know, a perfect target for anybody with a BB gun. And they’re going to go in like that without any air cover. It’s a story that it is — and bin Laden, the most hunted man in the world at that time since 2001. He was number one international terrorist. He’s going to hide out in a compound at Abbottabad, sort of a resort town, and a resort town 48 miles or so outside of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, within a mile or two of Pakistan’s West Point where they train young officers, the army does, and a couple of miles from a regimental headquarters full of army troops. He’s going to hide out there? I mean, As I wrote in the article, it’s a Lewis Carroll story. It just doesn’t sustain any credibility if you look at it objectively.
And so the deal was it was not to be announced. We were going to go kill the guy. That was, of course, the mission. That’s why the President had to talk about a firefight. There was not firefight. They’ve actually acknowledged that within a few days of the raid; the White House did. Bin Laden did not have an AK and wasn’t being — cowering behind some woman as was initially said. There was — the point being that, as I write very carefully in this article — seven to ten days after the body — the killing was done and the body was taken away, we were going to announce — the White House — the President, himself, was going to announce that a drone raid somewhere in the Hindu Kush mountain area, you know, the Waziristan — that’s not clear, it was going to be vague as to whether it — that’s the area that divides Pakistan and Afghanistan mountain area — it was going to be vague as to which country this took place in. Somewhere in that border area a drone raid hit a building. We sent in a team to look at it. There was a tall guy that looked like bin Laden. We took some pictures, some DNA — my god, we got him. That was the announcement. That protects everybody. Pasha and Kayani are working with us and nobody has to know it. Why are they worried about being told?
At one point in the last six or seven years, eight percent — that’s the popularity of America in Pakistan, was eight percent — bin Laden was hugely popular. If it was known to the public that Pasha and Kayani, the two leading generals that worked with us to kill the guy, they would be in real trouble. They’d have to move to Dubai or have armed guards.
So once the president did it — this is done without notice. And I’m — of course, as the — you quoted some officer saying it was unilateral. It was all American, yes, Pakistanis were not involved in a raid, our SEALs were. And so, I wish, as you said in the intro, Amy, the denials are all sort of non-denials.
AMY GOODMAN: Well before we get to the denials, with your sequence of events, you say they killed him, Obama didn’t plan to announce it right away. What happened? And what happened to Osama bin Laden’s body according to your account?
SEYMOUR HERSH: Yes. You have to understand this is caveated in my article. What I said was that the SEALs initially reported that — first they put a lot more bullets in it than has been publicly said; not in the head but in the body. There were six SEALs. SEALs work — SEALs are funny. They work in teams of six because that’s how many fit into a dinghy. Although, god knows, since this war began, The War on Terror, the American SEALs don’t go into the water very much, which is a source of great annoyance to them. They’re no longer water people they’re just regular ground guys. The issue accounts, and I do have access to people who had access to it — I’m sorry I have these sources, I just do. And I’m sorry other reporters don’t, but I just do and that’s just the way it is. And they did talk about throwing out parts of the body over the Hindu Kush mountains from the chopper because it was shot up pretty badly. The head was in tact.
Any way. And by the way, if you think about the sequence that I’m telling you, that you’re going to find another bin Laden somewhere, you don’t need the body. The only reason they took the body, the needed to take the body, is because the Pakistanis wanted it out of there. They didn’t want anybody to know anything about this. And we just followed their orders. And so what happened is that night — you know, it’s funny, I remember this vividly. Around nine o’ clock, I think it was CNN or somebody began to report at, on the night that the raid was announced, the night of the raid, after it’s success, there was reports that something had happened to bin Laden; something was coming very quickly. Two and a half hour debate. Two and a half hours of, as I understand, the debate was simply with a lot of people around Obama saying you cannot trust this story to be kept for seven to ten days. Among other things, the Secretary of Defense, Bob Gates, who had been very critical of the plan, very, very critical, as he wrote in his memoir, very upset about what happened, he might start talking, somebody might start talking, they’d start blabbing and you lose the edge Mr. President. This is re-election time and presidents do strange things before re-elections; often strange things. We know that.
And so Obama delivered a speech that was written by his political people and not cleared by the national security team. It was a speech with — I can’t begin to tell you Obama’s state of mind. As far as I know, he got a speech, he believed everything he read. He was — you know, he’s getting briefings, he believed what he was read. I’m not accusing him of lying, but what happened, what was said was a lie. And in the speech he laid down the foundation for an enormous scramble over the next weeks — the next days and weeks they had to recreate a new story. He said, as you said in the introduction, there was a firefight and Obama was — bin Laden was killed in it. That’s to cover the idea that it’s an out and out murder. And he said also, in the fight, he said also a treasure trove of material was recovered. We have yet to see it and I raise a lot of questions about what was covered, what was collected.
At one point the SEALs were said to have taken 15 computers out of there. But if you read everything that was written, it also was written and said many times there was no internet connection in Abbottabad. There was no sign of any operational capability of bin Laden at all. And one of the problems with the — protecting the walk in, when you — you had to protect the walk in —- one of the reasons you didn’t want to talk about a walk in is you don’t do that. And so we had to protect that -—
AMY GOODMAN: You mean the guy who revealed to the U.S. — walking into the U.S Embassy.
SEYMOUR HERSH: Yeah, they call him a walk in. And the President actually said in his speech, we had a lead — he said in Aug — we had a lead in August of 2010, which, really, for a lot of people in the intelligence community, that was too close to the mark. A lead means something something specific happened then. And that’s when the walk in went to see a guy named Jonathan Banks, the station chief, a very competent guy from everything I hear; the station chief for the CIA in Islamabad. And they — we had to call in — lie detector people from Washington had to fly in to debrief the guy and conclude he was telling the truth. It was a big piece of evidence. Anyway. But you have to get around that story so you create the courier story, that the CIA with brilliant work — and initially they wanted to say through enhanced interrogation — found out about a courier who led them to bin Laden. That is such a — that is really an outrageous story and they sold it to a movie called, "No Easy — ," no what was it —
AMY GOODMAN: "Zero Dark Thirty"?
SEYMOUR HERSH: Zero Dark — Zero Dark — that was the thesis of the movie. It also included the torture element. Absolutely not so. What happened is we had a guy walk in. NBC —- NBC, last night about six o’ clock, put out that story saying it, and you hardly saw it today. There was a piece I read in The New York Times this morning that didn’t deign to mention that independent network had confirmed one of the major elements. Not only a walk in, but it raises questions about the couriers that they talk so much about. And so -—
AMY GOODMAN: Sy — go ahead.
SEYMOUR HERSH: — it’s not — Let me just say this; here’s my theory about this. You know, there’s been a — in Europe and the rest of the world they’re more open minded, more willing to say, oh, terrible things happen. In America, I think, one of the problems with the press, and this is just a heuristic thinking — there’s nothing empirical about what I’m saying — I think one of the things that’s got them so agitated — people were writing stories accusing me a plagiarism in the press in the last two days. You know, Politico, which does great stuff, has a blog in which they said this sort of wacky stuff. A 10,000 word article that’s plagiarized? Anyway, I think there’s a sense that everybody bought into the story. Everybody bought into the story after 9/11. The White House had it going. They had the press begging for more information. Briefings were given. The stories initially had, if you remember the initial stories, they had bin laden ready with an AK and they were shooting in the doorway, etc. The only firing that came across in the first wave of after action reports was a stray bullet apparently hit a woman in the leg who was screaming, either before or after the bullet hit her, I don’t know. But there was no murder in the — there was no killing of people in the court yard. If there had been a gun in the court yard, if anybody’d had a gun in the court yard it was cleared by the intelligence — Pakistani intelligence cleared all of the guards out before the SEALs landed. If anybody had a gun in the courtyard, the SEALs wouldn’t have gone near the courtyard the way it did, just flying in, you know, like in a World War II movie.
AMY GOODMAN: Sy, we have to break, but we’re going to come back to this discussion.
SEYMOUR HERSH: Sure.
AMY GOODMAN: Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist. His latest piece in the London Review of Books is headlined, "The Killing of Osama bin Laden," appears It tells a very different story than the one we were told in the United States by President Obama. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman with Aaron Maté. Our guest is Seymour Hersh, the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist who just published piece in the London review of books called, "The Killing of Osama bin Laden." It tells a very different story than President Obama told the United States after Obama — after Osama bin Laden was killed.
AARON MATÉ: This morning on CNN, Philip Mudd, CNN 's counter terrorism analyst discussed Sy Hersh's reporting.
PHILIP MUDD: The assertion is not that somebody down the chain in the Pakistani military or security services might have known something. The assertion is that senior Pakistani generals, including the head of the security service knew for years. So, while that security service was losing officers in the fight against al-Qaida, there were also, at the same time, secretly sheltering the head of al-Qaida. I mean, let me break some news for you this morning: aliens abducted President Obama 15 minutes ago and Darth Vader is in the Oval Office making decisions for the United States. I have a secret source who told me that, why don’t we publish. This is nonsense. This is just ridiculous.
AARON MATÉ: That’s Philip Mudd of CNN. Sy Hersh, do you want to respond to that? Darth Vader in the White House.
SEYMOUR HERSH: No, of course not. I don’t care.
AARON MATÉ: OK, let me ask —
SEYMOUR HERSH: I mean, look, that’s childish. The reality is the Pakistanis told — there were meetings between the head of the Pakistani intelligence service, General Pasha, and Leon Panetta, that I write about. And I write about them based on, well you have to read the article to find out. The — I write about them very carefully. One of the questions always asked is, why did you do this to us? And particular, why bring in the Saudis. What happened is the Pakistanis, as some of you may know are very close with Saudi Arabia. There’s always been a chronic fear that the great Islamic bomb — at some point Pakistan might even give the Saudis a bomb. That’s been written about constantly. That’s a great concern. We really have a serious concern about maintaining great relations with — they’re very good right now with us and the Pakistani military. Anyway.
And so the answer that was given, I’ll just tell you exactly what it was. The way they explained it was, first of all, the — they went to — they told the Saudis and the Saudis immediately said, do not tell the Americans about him. Why? And I can only give you the obvious reason that was given, because the last thing the Saudi Arabia wants is the United States to be — the begin interrogating Osama bin Laden and discover who might have been giving him money, which sheikh, where, in Saudi Arabia in 2001 and 2002, and before or even after. That’s not completely illogical.
The second reason, of course, is, once the Pakistanis have bin Laden, they have leverage. They can let both the Taliban, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, know that they have him. They can let the jihadists in both countries also know that they have him. And they get leverage. They can make it clear to both those groups you have to talk to us more than you do. We want to know more about what’s going on or we’ll string this guy up. That’s all — that was the explanation given. Nobody liked it, but there was an understanding that Pakistan has its own point of view about the world and it isn’t only the same as ours. So we accepted it. We had not much choice, we wanted their help.
But — so it’s not a case Darth Vader and sort of silly talk like that. This is serious stuff I’m talking about. This is the President of the United States, if not knowing the wrong information was given, certainly countenancing it, in fact triggering a whole sequence of lies that had to be — a whole story that had to be recreated. And nobody is talking about what I wrote about, this poor Dr. Afridi, the one that’s now in jail on charges — he was convicted of treason, reviewed and now in jail on charges of murder for 33 years or something like that. This is the guy that was going around in — providing vaccinations for various kinds of illnesses; hepatitis, I think among them. I don’t think it was polio, but he was providing that kind of service to the community. A physician, and he was also an asset of the CIA, and we were so worried, in America, that the story about — we got DNA via the Pakistanis before the end of — before 2010.
You needed DNA. You needed the Pakistanis to get into Abbottabad, to get into — to take some DNA from bin Laden — we had other samples from his family — and make sure — the President wanted to know that was really bin Laden. And so a doctor — a Pakistani doctor had — was assigned to — his name was [Aziz]. Amir [Aziz] was assigned to move next door to the house in Abbottabad. In fact, journalists, after the raid, found his name in Urdu on a doorplate in one of the houses next to it. They to protect Aziz and so they created a story, the CIA in their wisdom, that Afridi was the one that went in and tried to get into the compound to take, unsuccessfully, to take —- to get a DNA sample from bin Laden, which, of course, led to a huge outcry against the idea that the Western intelligence media, the CIA and the Brits also often criticized for the same way, are behind some of the vaccination programs. This is a belief that certainly prevalent in Africa. And we’ve had tremendously adverse consequences for the health of -—
AMY GOODMAN: Sy, we have ten seconds.
SEYMOUR HERSH: Well the implications for the health, the well being of a lot of people, are pretty negative from this — a very dumb move by the CIA. These are all things to be considered. It’s not a Darth Vader moment. I’m sorry to say.
AMY GOODMAN: Seymour Hersh, we want to thank you for being with us, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist in Washington, D.C. We’ll link to your piece in the London Review of Books called "The Killing of Osama bin Laden." Coming up, CIA whistle-blower, Jeffrey Sterling is sentenced to three and a half years in jail. We’ll air an exclusive interview with him. This marks the first time the public has heard his voice since he was arrested four years ago. Stay with us.
On Monday former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling was sentenced to 42 months in prison for leaking classified information to New York Times reporter James Risen about a failed U.S. effort to undermine Iran’s nuclear program. Risen later exposed how the risky operation could have actually aided the Iranian nuclear program. In January Sterling was convicted of nine felony counts, including espionage. He becomes the latest government employee jailed by the Obama administration for leaking information. Since he was indicted four years ago, Jeffrey Sterling’s voice has never been heard by the public. But that changes today. We air an exclusive report that tells his story, "The Invisible Man." We are also joined by Norman Solomon, who interviewed Sterling for the piece and attended both his trial and sentencing. Solomon is a longtime activist, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, co-founder of RootsAction.org, and coordinator of ExposeFacts.org.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AARON MATÉ: On Monday, former CIA officer, Jeffrey Sterling, was sentenced to 42 months in prison for leaking classified information to New York Times reporter James Risen about a failed U.S. effort to undermine Iran’s nuclear program. Risen later exposed how the risky operation could have actually aided the Iranian nuclear program. In January, Sterling was convicted of nine felony counts, including espionage. He becomes the latest government employee jailed by the Obama administration for leaking information. Since he was indicted four years ago, Jeffrey Sterling’s voice has never been heard by the public, but that changes today. Prior to his sentencing he agreed to do an interview with Norman Solomon of ExposeFacts.org and Judith Ehrlich, who directed "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers." Their piece is called, "The Invisible Man."
JEFFREY STERLING: They already had the machine geared up against me. The moment that they felt there was a leak every finger pointed to Jeffrey Sterling. If the word retaliation is not thought of when anyone looks at the experience that I’ve had with the agency, then I just think you’re not looking.
NARRATOR: "The Invisible Man: CIA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling." January 26, 2015.
ALYNOA MINKOVSKI: Breaking news: Jeffrey Sterling the former CIA agent officer has been convicted of espionage. He faces years in prison.
ANNOUNCER: Sterling is the man who the CIA is blaming for giving the national defense information to The New York Times reporter, James Risen. The case centers around a secret CIA operation to give faulty nuclear plans to Iran in an effort to slow down the country’s nuclear ambitions.
NARRATOR: Sterling denies leaking to James Risen.
HOLLY STERLING: He did nothing wrong. He did nothing illegal. He expressed concern for our country.
JEFFREY STERLING: I reached out to the Senate Intelligence Committee. I gave them my concerns about an operation I was involved in, and I thought it could have an impact — a negative impact — on our soldiers going into Iraq.
RAY MCGOVERN: Operation Merlin was a cockamamie, hair-brained scheme developed by covert action operators who had lots of money.
JEFFREY STERLING: The Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Committee, they have clearances to hear this. That is what they are there for. They are there for oversight.
RAY MCGOVERN: They are not oversight committees, they are overlook committees.
NARRATOR: Before reporting Operation Merlin to the Congress, Sterling had sued the CIA for racial discrimination.
ANNOUNCER: Sterling became the first African American case officer to sue the CIA for racial discrimination. He claimed a pattern of prejudice derailed his career.
JEFFREY STERLING: Shortly after 9/11 I felt anger, anger to the point that, you know, I want to do something about this. I will drop my discrimination claims. I want to come back and help. The response was I got at that offer — dropping my suit — was, you’re fired. John Brennan, the head of the CIA at the moment. he personally came down to the administrative office to tell me that I was fired. Someone told me, he was like, well, you pulled on Superman’s cape.
NARRATOR: Eventually the court dismissed Sterling’s discrimination lawsuit on grounds that the trial would reveal "state secrets."
JEFFREY STERLING: After I had been fired, I had no where to go. No one would hire me. I was living out of my car, essentially, and I had hit rock bottom. By happenstance, friends had just had a baby in the St. Louis area, a friend that I had gone to college with. They had a small room for me there and... It was difficult to come to that realization that I go from being a case officer in a Central Intelligence Agency, I have a law degree, to, I’m a manny. But such is life. And I was there, and it always adds a bit of joy to — holding, taking care of a newborn baby.
HOLLY STERLING: Is a part of our family. We’re a package deal.
JEFFREY STERLING: I got the job with — as a company — a health insurance company. That was great. I felt, OK, things are turning around and I thought, well, why don’t I put myself out there?
JEFFREY STERLING: My lovely assistant, Holly, here.
JEFFREY STERLING: And that’s how I met Holly, my wife. And we hit it right off.
HOLLY STERLING: Jeffrey and I have an incredibly strong foundation in our relationship. It’s been since day one.
JEFFREY STERLING: No you won’t —
HOLLY STERLING: This is not my forte.
JEFFREY STERLING: I’m kidding.
HOLLY STERLING: I like to eat.
HOLLY STERLING: We met via match.com. That was our first date. Second date, but, we said we were going to get married on the beach, barefoot. And that’s exactly what happened. We got married in Jamaica.
JEFFREY STERLING: So life is just feeling good. I hadn’t heard anything. I’d left that world behind, and I’m moving on. I had been getting calls from previous attorneys that they’re still looking into me, and that didn’t make any sense to me. I was like, why? Shortly after that, you know, I receive information about there was a possible leak and that everyone’s pointing a finger at me. Evidently they had never taken me out of their sights. I was like, I need to find some help. So I went to a local congressman, Lacy Clay. And one of his staff members looked at me very succinctly and said, you should just leave the country. And that — that hurt. Here’s a black man who works with a black representative, knowing what we’ve gone through in this country, and me trying to exert and stand up for my civil rights. You mention CIA to them and the only response that I got was I should run away. Well, my mother didn’t teach me that. You don’t run away, you stand up for yourself.
I grew up in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, which is about two hours south of St. Louis, right on the Mississippi river. I was the youngest of five brothers. One went to the Army, one was in the Navy, and another went to the Marines. My stand up for yourself, be yourself sort of attitude, that was instilled to me by my mother. Despite this extraordinary ordeal that Jeffrey and I have been through for over a decade, we both believe in standing up for ourselves and we’ll face this till the end, no matter the consequences.
NARRATOR: January 2006. Reporter James Risen revealed information about Operation Merlin in his book "State of War."
JEFFREY STERLING: In 2006 they started coming to our doorstep.
HOLLY STERLING: They flew me out to Virginia and I was — went to FBI headquarters and was interrogated for seven hours. And then the next day they surrounded the home, actually. They just went methodically through the home. They went to my family. They went to my employer. Just incredibly intrusive and incredibly disturbing. Your whole sense of security in your home and privacy was violated.
JEFFREY STERLING: We were wondering — the next thing has to be they’re going to arrest me. Well, we go over four years with nothing, not hearing a word. If I was so dangerous, where have they been.
NARRATOR: January 6, 2011.
SCOTT THUMAN: Sterling is accused of leaking details about a botched CIA operation in Iran to New York Times journalists.
ANNOUNCER: He made his initial court appearance today in leg shackles.
ALYNOA MINKOVSKI: Prosecutors allege that Sterling was trying to get revenge on the CIA when he served as a source for Risen about an agency operation meant to deter Iran’s nuclear program.
JEFFREY STERLING: So one morning I wake up and I’m behind bars. And for what? I didn’t do anything. Actually three days before the trial starts, and the government made a move that the judge did not like and basically the government said they couldn’t go forward. So that day in September, 2011, I mean, we were like, OK, this is over.
HOLLY STERLING: Our lawyers gave some indication they thought it was done.
JEFFREY STERLING: But the government appealed, and that process took three years. And my wife had to sit with this Sword of Damocles over our head. And in responses from the government, it was all about the approach to the reporter. To the mainstream press, it became the Risen case, and I’m the defendant. I’m the one facing the charges. I was convicted on January 26, 2015. It was a shock. I’m still in shock by the verdict.
ANNOUNCER: A former CIA officer faces decades in prison after being convicted of espionage. A federal jury in Virginia found Jeffrey Sterling guilty on all nine counts against him, Monday.
NARRATOR: Five weeks after Sterling’s conviction, news broke that former CIA director David Petraeus got a plea deal with no jail time for leaking top secret information.
JESSELYN RADACK: How three past CIA directors, including Leon Panetta, including General David Petraeus, including Brennan have all leaked covert identities and suffered no consequence for it.
NORMAN SOLOMON: Very disturbing. Not only the selective prosecution, but also the fact that no African-Americans on the jury. All of the evidence presented by the prosecution was circumstantial email and phone call metadata without content of any incriminating nature. The conviction is a major victory for the Obama administration and it’s unprecedented crack down on government leaks.
JEFFREY STERLING: They shut me up with my discrimination case, and they’ve closed the door with the criminal case.
RAY MCGOVERN: They’re trying to make an example of Sterling. I don’t know whether he did it or not, but whoever did it, did a service to our country, because our country needs to know.
JEFFREY STERLING: Thankful I can experience the tremendous amount of support that we received, not only locally, but, essentially, globally. It’s very encouraging.
HOLLY STERLING: We are surrounded by wonderful friends and family. Our family decided to make GoFundMe account to assist with finances for Jeffrey and I. It’s been very well received.
HOLLY STERLING: We just — we love you and thank you for your support.
SUPPORTER: You’re welcome —
HOLLY STERLING: It was over 50,000 people that signed the petition to drop the charges against Jeffrey.
SUPPORTER: Alright, talk to you soon.
HOLLY STERLING: It’s been incredibly difficult to watch him not being able to change the circumstances.
JEFFREY STERLING: Marry me again?
HOLLY STERLING: Absolutely.
HOLLY STERLING: I married the love of my life and my best friend. My greatest fear is Jeffrey going to jail.
JEFFREY STERLING: I’m absolutely scared of me being sent to prison, particularly for something I did not do. But I am comfortable with myself and the choices that I’ve made, 'cause I know I wouldn't have done it any other way. I like who I see in the mirror.
AMY GOODMAN: Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling in a piece produced by ExposeFacts.org. Joining us now is Norm Solomon, coordinator of ExposeFacts.org. He was in the court room on Monday when Jeffrey Sterling sentenced to three and a half years in prison. We only have a minute, Norman. What do you think is most important to understand right now with this sentencing to three and a half years.
NORMAN SOLOMON: Well, there are a dozen aspects. But it’s really the continuation of a war on whistlblowing and journalism; to clamp down on the absolutely essential flow of information for democracy. The Obama administration continues its war on the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendment, on journalism and on whistleblowing, and the courtroom sentencing yesterday was part of the attack on our freedom and liberties, really.
AMY GOODMAN: And how it compares to what happened to General Petraeus.
NORMAN SOLOMON: Well, General Petraeus’ not even slap on the wrist, but fondle on the wrist by the government was hovering over the court room yesterday. And I think, thanks that the counterpoint of Jeffrey Sterling going to prison, three and a half year sentence, and Petraeus getting off totally is just showing the absurdity and tyranny of what the administration continues to do. I should say that Democracy Now! airing this documentary this morning as a world premier, is extremely important and I would urge everybody to go to democracynow.org and share this film, because we really want it to go worldwide. One more quick thing; Sterling Family Fund is essential for Jeffrey and Holly Sterling to really survive this transition into prison and people can find a link to it at RootsAction.org.
AMY GOODMAN: Norman Solomon, we want to thank you for being with us; long time activist, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, Co-Founder of RootsAction.org and coordinator of ExposeFacts.org. Among his books, "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning us to Death." That does it for out broadcast.
Headlines:
Obama Administration Allows Shell to Drill in Arctic
The Obama administration has granted Shell conditional approval to begin offshore oil drilling in the Arctic this summer, despite protests by environmentalists and a spate of safety problems. Shell was previously allowed to begin Arctic drilling in 2012, but its attempts were beset by mishaps, including an oil rig which ran aground. The Interior Department found the company "screwed up," failing on a number of basic tasks, including supervision of contractors. But the department will now allow Shell to drill in the pristine and highly remote Chukchi Sea, off the coast of Alaska, an area roiled by extreme weather which would be extremely difficult to reach in an emergency. Environmentalists soundly condemned the government’s decision. Rebecca Noblin of the Center for Biological Diversity said, "Scientists tell us that if we want to avoid the worst effects of climate change, we need to keep Arctic oil in the ground. Arctic drilling gives us a 75 percent chance of an oil spill and a 100 percent chance of climate catastrophe."
Saudi-Led Airstrikes Pound Yemen Ahead of Truce
In Yemen, Saudi-led airstrikes pounded the capital Sanaa and the southern port of Aden, targeting Shiite Houthi rebels, hours before today’s ceasefire was due to take effect. The Saudi government offered the five-day truce to allow delivery of humanitarian aid amid the mounting civilian toll caused by its airstrikes and blockade. On Monday, Houthi rebels said they had shot down a Moroccan fighter jet participating in the Saudi-led campaign. Meanwhile both the Saudi and U.S. governments rushed to reject perceptions of a rift following the announcement Saudi King Salman will not attend President Obama’s summit of Gulf nations this week. In what is seen as a message of protest over Iranian nuclear talks, Saudi Arabia will instead send lower-level officials. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest denied the move was a snub.
Josh Earnest: "Again, they have said the Saudis themselves have said that the reason for the change in the King’s travel schedule is not related at all to the substance of the meeting. I think what they have indicated is ha said that he would prefer to remain in Saudi Arabia to monitor the implementation of the humanitarian pause in Yemen."
Nepal: 2nd Major Earthquake Hits Near Everest
Another major earthquake has struck Nepal, killing at least four people, setting off landslides, collapsing damaged buildings and sending panicked residents running into the streets. The 7.3-magnitude quake struck the town of Namche Bazaar, near Mount Everest. It comes just over two weeks after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed more than 8,000 people.
Bangladesh: Secular Blogger Murdered
In Bangladesh, another blogger who supported secularism has been murdered. Ananta Bijoy Dash was reportedly attacked by men wielding sharp weapons. His death marks at least the third killing of a Bangladeshi blogger in less than three months. Dash wrote for a website moderated by Bangladeshi-American blogger Avijit Roy, who was murdered in February.
Senate to Vote on Advancing Fast-Track for TPP
In the United States, the Senate is expected to hold a key procedural vote today on a measure to give President Obama fast-track authority to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. The 12-nation trade pact would encompass 40 percent of the global economy and is being negotiated in secret. Critics say the deal would hurt workers, undermine regulations and expand corporate power. Senate lawmakers who support the deal need 60 votes to begin a full debate.
Swedish Court Rejects Assange’s Appeal of Arrest Warrant
A Swedish court has rejected WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s appeal of an arrest warrant which has kept him holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for nearly three years. Assange sought refuge over fears the warrant on sex crime allegations could lead to his extradition to Sweden, and then to the United States. He has not been charged with a crime. Sweden’s Supreme Court rejected the appeal Monday after granting him the right to submit it last month. Swedish prosecutors are preparing to travel to London to interview Assange, after refusing to do so for years.
Ex-CIA Officer Jeffrey Sterling Sentenced to 42 Months for NYT Leak
Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling has been sentenced to 42 months in prison for leaking classified information to New York Times reporter James Risen about a failed U.S. effort to undermine Iran’s nuclear program. Risen later exposed how the risky operation could have inadvertently aided the Iranian nuclear program. In January Sterling was convicted of nine felony counts, including espionage, becoming the latest former government employee jailed by the Obama administration for leaking information. We’ll have more on Sterling later in the broadcast.
Freed Journalist Mohamed Fahmy Sues Al Jazeera
Freed Al Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy is suing Al Jazeera for $100 million over its roles in his imprisonment in Egypt. Fahmy, who is Egyptian-Canadian, spent more than a year in prison along with two other Al Jazeera journalists. In a lawsuit filed in Canadian court, he accused Al Jazeera of giving him misinformation about his legal status in Egypt, and airing his reports on its Egyptian channel, which was banned.
Mohamed Fahmy: "Egypt put us three journalists on trial instead of punishing the network, but I will not be as lenient as Egypt and I’m here to announce that I will set the record straight and put Al Jazeera on trial in Canada’s top court. The network not only deceived us journalists, breached contract, and acted negligently toward us before the arrest, but they also failed to reimburse me for my full legal fees."
Nebraska: 2 Prisoners Dead After Uprising over Poor Conditions
In Nebraska, two prisoners have been found dead after authorities reclaimed control of a prison following an uprising over the weekend. Prisoners had seized control of half the housing units at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution on Sunday, setting fires and tearing down walls, ceiling tiles and security cameras. A prisoner told the Lincoln Journal Star newspaper the uprising took place after repeated attempts to get prison officials to address poor conditions at the overcrowded prison, including a lack of access to jobs and exercise. Prisoners said they had intended to deliver a petition demanding improvements. Authorities say the revolt began after a staff member tried to break up an unauthorized gathering.
Report: Baltimore Police Ignored Injuries Suffered by Arrestees
A new report finds Baltimore police routinely ignore injuries suffered by the people they detain. Following the death of Freddie Gray from spinal injuries in police custody, the Baltimore Sun found over the past few years, 2,600 people have been denied admittance to the city jail because their injuries were too severe. That includes 123 people with visible head injuries.
U.S. Record on Police Violence Questioned at U.N. Review
The findings came as the United States faced questions over police violence at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The questioning came as part of a universal periodic review, which takes place every four years. Member states grilled the United States over its failures to close Guantanamo prison, prosecute perpetrators of CIA torture and address violence against Native American women. But the review focused on racism and police brutality, an area where U.S. Justice Department official James Cadogan acknowledged the United States must improve.
James Cadogan: "The tragic deaths of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Michael Brown in Missouri, Eric Garner in New York, Tamir Rice in Ohio and Walter Scott in South Carolina have renewed the long-standing and critical national debate about the even-handed administration of justice. These events challenge us to do better and to work harder for progress through both dialogue and action."
Attending the review of the U.S. human rights record in Geneva was the brother of Rekia Boyd, a 22-year-old African-American woman fatally shot in the back of the head by an off-duty Chicago police officer in 2012. Last month, Dante Servin was found not guilty after killing Boyd and shooting and injuring her friend. Servin claimed he thought the friend had a gun, although none was found. Martinez Sutton called for justice in his sister’s death.
Martinez Sutton: "I just want to see some justice take place, I just want to see justice...you know...They let this guy walk free, not guilty...My sister is dead. They tried to blame it on the guy who had got a shot in the hand, but all the charges were dismissed against him, so who is going to take this? My sister didn’t kill herself...You know...I would love for the department of Justice to take gain and take a look at this case."
Florida: George Zimmerman Injured in Shooting
George Zimmerman, who was acquitted of murder after fatally shooting the unarmed African-American teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012, has suffered minor injuries after police say he was shot at while driving in Central Florida. Zimmerman was struck by flying glass and debris, not by a bullet. The man accused of shooting at him was involved in a previous encounter with Zimmerman last year, when he said Zimmerman threatened to kill him and asked him, "Do you know who I am?" Zimmerman has had repeated run-ins with police since his acquittal, including two arrests on allegations of domestic violence.
Georgia: Black Man Found Hanging from Tree
An African-American man has been found hanging from a tree in the rural town of Greensboro, Georgia. The man, Roosevelt Champion III, had been questioned last week in connection with the murder of a white woman, but had not been charged. Authorities say there is "nothing to suggest any foul play" in his death, but they are continuing to investigate.
New York: Oil Leaks from Nuclear Power Plant After Explosion
Here in New York, an unknown amount of oil has leaked into the Hudson River following an explosion and fire at the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan, north of New York City. A transformer fire over the weekend in a non-nuclear section of the plant caused a holding tank to overflow, spilling thousands of gallons of oil. The fire marks at least the third at the plant in the past eight years. The Riverkeeper clean water advocacy group said in a statement, "Indian Point has a long, disturbing history of operational and environmental problems. The plant’s aging infrastructure has caught up to it and we must see that it is closed or these problems will only worsen with potentially catastrophic results."
New York Senate Leader Dean Skelos Resigns After Corruption Arrest
New York State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos has stepped down from his post following his arrest on federal corruption charges. Skelos is accused of soliciting payments for his son in exchange for political favors. His resignation comes months after New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver resigned following charges he took millions of dollars in bribes.
Massachusetts City to Stop Arresting Drug Addicts, Provide Aid Instead
The chief of police in Gloucester, Massachusetts is traveling to Washington, D.C. today to meet with lawmakers and tout the city’s new approach to handling drug addicts. In a Facebook post that’s received 2 million views, Police Chief Leonard Campanello announced earlier this month Gloucester police will no longer criminally charge drug addicts who seek help, instead guiding them immediately toward detox and recovery. The police department has also reached a deal with a local pharmacy to cover the cost of the life-saving overdose antidote Narcan for the uninsured, using money seized from drug dealers. Campanello discussed the plans with local news station WCVB.
Leonard Campanello: "We wanted the police department to be one of the safe havens where you could walk in when you are ready and we don’t want to waste that moment when the addict is ready. We are done with an addict bring criminally charged for the offense of addiction. We are going to take that extra step and make sure they get the treatment that they need."
Verizon to Buy AOL for $4.4 Billion
Verizon has announced plans to buy AOL in an estimated $4.4 billion deal. The purchase will reportedly let Verizon expand its mobile video and advertising plans.
Report: Wal-Mart Getting Bottled Water from Drought-Hit California
And a new report has revealed Wal-Mart is getting its bottled water from California, despite a historic drought. The drought recently prompted the state’s first-ever mandatory water restrictions. Communities have been ordered to slash their water use by as much as 36 percent, but the curbs do not apply to agriculture and other industry. Local news station CBS13 found Wal-Mart is drawing its bottled water from the Sacramento Municipal Water Supply at a massive profit. Starbucks has also been drawing bottled water from California, although it recently vowed to move production to Pennsylvania after the practice came to light.
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